Contending with an Ebony Spirit
by AnHeiressofaSOLDIER
Summary: For SoKai Day. Post-KHIII. The Lights had been so close to defeating Xehanort and allowing everything to go back to normal. But as soon as Sora had gotten ready to deal the final blow, Kingdom Hearts enveloped him. The moment he came back? He'd pretty much been continuing Xehanort's work, and no one at all could understand why. What's going on? Kai will try to figure it out. 1shot.


**Author's Note: So, I started a story years ago where I tried to prove to myself that I could make a HSM world work in KH…**

 **This is not that story at all, though I guess you could say that it's maybe a second attempt at that: one that I started when I wanted to write something SoKai, but needed some sort of idea for it and so (somewhat) latched onto one of my older ones.**

 **And I think it ended up working pretty well with the theme of this story (as Sora's not all out-evil in this and if I had wanted him to be, I probably would have used a world like Cinderella up to Big Hero 6 in terms of scale, for instance—not a simpler and more laidback one, like HSM).**

 **Anyway, this is inspired by me reading quite a few SoKai horror fics recently, as well as obsessing over Final Fantasy XV and Noctis/Luna (though somewhat missing the Versus XIII days, where Stella/Luna was going to be Noctis' enemy in a Romeo and Juliet kind of story). But I'm trying to make this a realistic to canon take on the "Sora becoming somewhat evil" thing, as well as Sora and Kairi's relationship in general.**

 **KH Chi spoilers (maybe), btw:)**

 **Oh, and Sakura (who is in this) is actually my headcanon for Sora and Kairi's daughter, but she's very much not their child in this story at all.**

 **And I used different words for "heart", "light", and "darkness" somewhat in here. I hope you guys don't mind (and hopefully you'll be able to tell what I'm trying to say with my replacements), but tbh the series uses those terms WAY too much and could benefit from some synonyms.**

 **Also… Naminé, sadly, did not come back to life after KHIII. Mainly because it worked for the purposes of this fic, and I do think I want at least one person to stay dead at the end of that game, maybe. Usually I wouldn't choose Naminé at all (because I LOVE her, and I'm 99.9% sure she will return), but this fanfiction developed in a certain way, so yeah: that happened.**

 **With all of that said, I hope that you guys will enjoy this SoKai Day piece. Thanks for reading!**

 **Contending with an Ebony Spirit**

 **Sora's PoV**

The new world Sora's at isn't the most action-packed one he's ever been to.

At Albuquerque High, he sits in one of the balconies of the auditorium—acting as though he's an older, tough bully that goes there and should be feared—and he waits to be able to collect something.

He'd come to this strange world with its cliques, in being able to tell from the jealousy alone here that he'd be able to gather up a lot of… badness here.

Sora frowns in thinking about that last particular word, imagining how the poetic Kairi would probably scoff at him using it.

The correct description for his movements is "evil", of course.

But even now, when he himself is doing things that he had once loathed Xehanort for, Sora can't think himself of being some sort of demon.

After all… hadn't he come to this world in particular, because his senses can pick up that people are _less_ likely to become Heartless here, while still meeting the criteria?

But what's even the point of trying to justify his actions to himself? Sora had given up on that long ago, and had just chosen to rest in his decision.

Putting his hands behind his head, and deeming to again pay attention to the scene playing out in front of him, Sora notices that one girl is singing opera and then nearly falling into despair—when the teacher Ms. Darubs—dismisses the youth's serenading, and even insults her somewhat.

The Keyblade wielder leans forward to get a better look at the proud expression the child wears, whilst she holds back her tears, before departing; Sora then recalls some of Ventus' memories of the princess Aurora's operatic voice.

How Sora misses the days that he could defend the Princesses of Heart…

In some sort of semblance of revenge (for who, Sora doesn't really know), he almost wants to nab some of Miss Darbus'… lesser qualities to get what he needs and to protect the world.

But he thinks better of it, when he notices someone with even more promising issues coming into the room.

Oh, the dark-skinned girl's light shines very brightly. Not unlike Naminé's own, when she finally became her own person, in Sora's opinion.

The boy trailing behind the girl, however, isn't so good. He clearly wants to be with Gabriella (Sora thinks he remembers her being called that somewhere before), but his fear that his friends will figure out he wants to be a singer is eating him alive.

Sora thinks about using the conch shell's magic to just get _that_ and move on already. But when he notices Miss Darbus proudly shutting them down, and not letting them audition, for the musical—for biased reasons—he thinks of using her again.

In the end, he listens to Troy and Gabriella sing beautifully and then help another girl out—and then he sees Darbus flip-flop on her ideas about the duo—and the boy with the Key ponders.

 **Kairi's PoV**

Kairi decides that the best bet, when she comes into this new world, is to pose as a transfer student at the nearby school.

She's sitting in the noisy drama room, she believes, and a girl named Taylor McKessie is giving her the ins and outs of her schedule.

Kairi doesn't really care—though as a Princess of Heart, she appreciates the other girl's goodness—as she's only really here to battle Heartless if they appear. Like _they_ might've once done, if things were different.

But Kairi doesn't want to think about her boys right now, for the brave one has decided to try and hide from his disastrous life, and the light one has become lost to darkness.

A loan tear almost slides down Kairi's face at the thought of it all, but she doesn't give into it. Not when this other student—who reminds Kairi of a girl that Sora had once met in Agrabah, that he'd told her about—is asking her to join a math club.

Kairi has always liked arithmetic, so she readily agrees.

She needs to make sure this world is readily protected, after all, so she'll probably be staying here for a while; and learning more about this world "Singstar" certainly couldn't hurt.

Later that day, Kairi hears screaming in front of a callback board.

She almost goes to where she'd seen that display of bulletins earlier, Destiny's Embrace in hand—to make sure that the person who had shouted is okay—but then she hears that blonde girl she'd met earlier (who Kairi's about ninety-nine percent sure was the one who had bellowed) being teased.

Shaking her head at the ridiculousness of the situation, Kairi decides to get lunch. She needs to eat like everyone else is, doesn't she?

And she's completely unaware of everything that's about to transpire and who she'll face.

…

So, Taylor… Kairi's deciding she maybe she doesn't like her as much as she'd initially thought that she did, as the three friends sit at a lunch table together.

The brunette is currently harping on another girl, Gabriella, for wanting to sing in a school performance with a boy that she likes.

And what's even worse is that all of Albuquerque High now seems to be convinced that Troy and Gabriella had somehow "betrayed them".

Kairi sighs. She can sense darkness in everyone's hearts at the moment, and it sets her teeth on edge.

In this situation, she wants to protect at least one light that she can find (Gabriella); and since the girl reminds Kairi so much of poor Naminé, Kairi puts a hand on the musician's shoulder and assures her that if she wants to sing, then it's A-Okay.

"I like to make arts and crafts _and_ to write poetry," Kairi finishes her reassuring words to Gabriella off. "So if you want to give us all beautiful music while we do the Scholastic Decathlon, who should stop you?"

There's a smile on Gabriella's face, as she looks into Kairi's face that's full of understanding love—though Kairi's trying to hide the fact that she knows about love from firsthand experience.

Acknowledging that would just be way, way too painful to deal with right now.

"Thank you, Kairi. And for what it's worth, I'm glad you're here."

Kairi's about to reply to this in kind, but then there's a movement out of the corner of her eye.

No. What is he doing here?! These innocent kids don't deserve whatever he has in store for them.

Without even bothering to try and be discreet, Kairi begins making a Corridor of Light with her right hand.

She walks through it, hoping to catch Sora off guard.

But then Sora's sniffing the air—and smelling her light, it seems—and before Kairi can wish that she had thought this over some before acting, he's turning in her direction and then facing her.

"Kairi…"

To Sora's credit, he doesn't say her name like a typical villain would have—as if she's so very far beneath him, and not worth truly considering, though he will still fight her—but as if he is seeing her in his worst nightmare.

There's panic in Sora's eyes now; and as everyone below them throws their hands up into the air while they do an odd chorus together, Kairi wonders if he'll summon his Keyblade to try and fend her off with.

"Why are you here?" Sora asks the baffled Kairi, as water from one of the large posters just above her drips down; the H20 had undoubtedly gotten trapped there during the last rainstorm this world had had.

It isn't entirely unpleasant to Kairi. She is named for water, after all, and it serves to wake up her senses and to make her try to emulate Aqua.

Kairi's always been sensitive to lies, in being a Princess of Light, and though she can see some untruths in Sora's words now (but also some absolutes), she can't at all figure out why they're happening.

As Sora begins visibly shaking, Kairi wants to demand what happened to him at the Keyblade Graveyard.

One moment he'd been stopping Xehanort from getting the X-Blade, but in the next he had disappeared.

And when- when he had showed up again, he'd pretty much been continuing the old man's work.

Kairi sniffled at the memory of how awful she and all of Sora's friends had felt in first seeing him like that.

Her blade is a flash of dark light in Kairi's hands.

Somehow, Kairi's meeting the girl Xion—who had once been created from Sora's ideas about Kairi herself—had turned the sword into harsh silvers and blues, as well as into some harsh angles, but Kairi can't say that she minds it.

Perhaps- perhaps it's only fitting that Sora's imagining of Kairi faces the now dreamless version of Sora in some way.

The boy whistles when he sees Kairi's Keyblade directed at his throat. And though he holds no weapon against her, he is finally her stereotypical enemy.

"You're preparing to fight me, Kairi? For _not_ turning people into Heartless, but instead stealing their already existing darkness away from them? You won't win against me. You must know that."

And a part of Kairi does, because she can still taste the sand in her mouth—from when he had knocked her into the turf over and over again, when they'd been training and she had tried to sneak attack him.

But she still must try.

"Answer me, Sora! Are _you_ responsible for these people pretty much wanting to rip Troy and Gabriella's jugulars out over singing?!"

She's making a scene and she knows it, but Kairi can't bring herself to stop it.

She prays that this world will attribute what she's doing to some sort of act she's doing, like they are, but Kairi's not convinced on that front.

Sora has a dead expression on his face as he looks at Kairi now, and it almost makes her feel bad for what she's putting him through now.

Almost.

"Put your weapon away, Kairi," Sora yawns.

And for just a moment, he's her old lazy bum again. And that hurts Kairi more than anything else Sora's done yet has, because it's gone in just an instance. But then… Then his eyes resemble a look that hint that he's looking at his own grave.

"Do I _seem_ like someone who would mess up a couple like our- Anyway, you should know I'd never want to turn artists into Heartless. I sang in a musical once myself, remember? I'm just taking the sin that these people already have and then I'll be gone. Just like that."

"And what are you going to do with that element once you have it, Sora?" Kairi begins, suddenly being much more like her old self, too, as she reaches out to put a hand on Sora's chest.

But he recoils as if he'd been burned, almost making Kairi cry again.

"If you've found a way to fight more effectively, just let me know and I'll-"

"I'm putting it in Kingdom Hearts," Sora interrupts Kairi's attempt to give him clemency, and she feels like she's going to be sick for it.

Meanwhile, a blond boy—that mean girl's twin—is moving towards the pair, as if the look Kairi's wearing shows that she's perfect for drama club.

She halts his approach by putting a hand up in the air.

"You're what, Sora? But I… I help to make up all the light within Kingdom Hearts, don't I? So won't… won't what you're doing hurt me? And also, cast the world into shadows once more?"

For all the reasons that Kairi ever might've considered Sora turning evil for, this had never been one of them.

"Do you really hate me so?" she asks, falling to the ground and choking on air. And that blond always wearing the different hats is heading her way again.

Sora doesn't stay to assure Kairi that what he's doing is for the greater good, or that he'd never hurt her—or anything like that—and instead summons a Dark Corridor and is gone almost faster than Kairi can blink.

Meanwhile, Sharpay begins screaming for the food that Gabriella has accidentally knocked onto her shirt.

 **Sora's PoV**

"Xion?" Sora asks—though he, of course, knows that she's not around and can't hear him. "Is this… Is this what you went through in pretending to be Roxas' enemy, so he'd kill you? I suppose it must have.

"Heh. I wish that Kairi _could_ kill me, but that option's off the table. Now and forever."

Sora's upset. And his emotions begin to make time stir.

He can now move through time like Merlin can—for when Sora defeated Xehanort, and Kingdom Hearts showed him everything, he gained that power.

And now Troy Bolton's at a place in his life where he wants to go to his school and sing and scream, and it's fitting to Sora's own mood.

But he relaxes his _seizing_ hand, and in doing so allows things to move back to where they're supposed to be.

Sora somewhat regrets this, because he needs to know that at least _someone_ can relate to him in some way—and Troy Bolton very much can in the future, it seems—but he sucks it up and moves on.

Sitting in his navy blue armchair—Taylor and Chad currently conspiring to separate Troy and Gabriella from each other, Sora knows—he supposes he could be lamenting what he had learned that had ruined his whole life:

That light and darkness _are_ meant to be in balance, and that if he doesn't put ebony into the pale Kingdom Hearts, then the Keyblade War will happen again and again (to try and forcibly achieve that balance), and eventually all of his friends will die if that happens.

And seeing all that he has now, Sora knows that to save everyone… there's no better alternative than to make Kingdom Hearts reflect them all better.

So to the world's eyes, Sora will play the hero who lost his mind (and he knows that none will ever understand it; _her_ especially)—but Sora will gladly bear the brunt of it all to keep up the lessons he learned in his first journey, about protecting all the people he's met and therefore all people.

But as tears begin streaming down Sora's face, and he puts his hands behind his head to at least feel like his old self (and like everything's okay) for one moment, he has this stray thought:

"Long hair and a braid suits you well, Kairi. You look like Anna.

"And the singing here reminds me of her—reminds me of you—so maybe that's why I'm in this place... In a world without you, this planet stirs up memories of you, at least."

 **Kairi's PoV**

Kairi doesn't sleep that night. She can't. She's too busy trying to figure out whose raven-colored heart Sora's going to pull on.

She's starting to think it's Miss Darbus, who seems to be trying to think of excuses to move callbacks to a different time, but she can't be sure.

But honestly, what Kairi's puzzling over most is how Sora can be placing darkness into Kingdom Hearts—into here very spirit and leave her feeling exactly the same.

Does this mean that the heaven she'd helped to create has always been less than perfect? Kairi doesn't know, but she would like to.

Summoning Destiny's Embrace to hand, as she gets out of bed and to her feet, Kairi's hair changes colors when she taps into the memory of someone who is _no longer_ in the Realm of Sleep.

She knows that Ventus had done that—and had become friends with Ephemer and Skuld that way, and had even felt something of their true friend within himself when he connected to them—but when Kairi herself had done that before, Riku had worried she was summoning that person's own shaky balance between light and darkness and getting it to effect her pure heart.

What if… What if Riku—her now "do nothing" friend—had been right back then?

Maybe she does have darkness in her heart, Kairi thinks then, and always has and always will?

In this is the case, Sora's not hurting her at all.

So why is Sora acting like he's turned against her, then?

Why doesn't he clue any of his friends into what's going on with him, if there's a chance they can help?

What is his endgame?

Kairi's completely lacking answers to all these questions, and she doesn't like it.

And more than that, she hates that she's tearing up about Sora again.

After he finally took her on an adventure to stop Xehanort, some years back, Kairi had thought that she'd never have to cry again at all.

What a fool she is, Kairi decides in that moment.

The next day, when a plan is hatched that breaks Troy and Gabriella up and they're both clearly miserable, Kairi will realize that it's for them she should be experiencing sympathy.

But never for Sora.

No, never again for him.

…

Surprisingly enough—despite her inner-turmoil and despite the fact that she's trying to be a good Keyblade wielder—Kairi is actually keeping up with the homework she's being given at Albuquerque High.

When she had decided that she was going to become a Master as surely as Sora and Riku had, Kairi'd promised herself that she would actually keep up with some studying (even if it was just in the places that she went to and had no bearing on what she'd need to know back on the Island), so she wouldn't be completely left out on being book smart like Sora and Riku had been.

So when she starts noticing some of the darkness in Taylor's—and Chad's, is it?—heart while finishing her work in study hall, she flashes and dismisses her Keyblade in her hand over and over again—not knowing what to do.

She just can't attack people with impure hearts, like her Senpai Aqua had attempted doing long ago.

So Kairi thinks about trying to find a way of banishing their night and turning it into radiance, like Riku had learned how to do…

But Kairi's never been good at that at all, so she brushes the thought aside before she can hurt someone by accident.

She just barely hears them saying something about Troy and Gabriella, and she sighs in knowing that hurt is probably coming the two artists' way…

Hurt that Kairi will be unable to stop, because she has gym class while the rest of her friends are going to chemistry.

And when Kairi finally breaks free of the constraints that are that physical education, it's to see Gabriella sobbing, while walking down some stairs.

The Latina girl is singing a sad song to herself and it's too late.

 **Sora's PoV**

"She's going to find out you're lying to her, and that you're good still," Sakura tells Sora, as she looks through a secret passage in the school auditorium's balcony, with binoculars plastered to her face.

She's a plump blonde girl, with a brown-gray tank top on and sunglasses adorning the top of her head… usually. Not now.

And being a bit of a sucker for snap judgements (Sora can be this way now, now that he knows that darkness is something needed and that he should let it in, and whatever), Sora had initially thought that Sakura would never be able to keep up with him.

But she keeps up with each of Sora's strides, and a lot of times reaches places and conclusions long before he even does.

Without her, Sora thinks he probably would have gone insane a long time ago.

But at the same time, since she's also the most pessimistic person that he's ever met in his life, Sora almost wonders if going crazy would be the better alternative.

Her presence is just _draining_ , and Sora truly hates being around her at times (weird for him, he knows), but at the same time… he can't imagine life without her anymore.

His new ally is after the same things that Sora is… but for different reasons.

But since the end result of their working together will mean that everyone will finally be kept safe forever, the Keyblade wielder really can't care less what's going through her head.

…And yet she feels the need to fill him in about all of it, anyway.

Sora rolls his eyes—and wishes to anyone, or anything, that might be listening, that he is instead home with his friends.

"Seriously, Sora. That was _stupid_. You know I respect you now. I do! But if she finds out you're trying to put darkness into her heart, she's either going to figure out there's _always_ been some there—and get _more_ that way and throw off the balance—or do something crazy, like messing with her light to try to get the taint out. And if that happens, it will bode _oh so_ well. I tell you what!"

 _You don't know what it's like_ , Sora wants to say. _You_ _don't know what it's like to try and be the hero, but to have everything you knew get turned on its head… And then turn evil, in the sight of your friends, in order to set things right. And so I had one moment of weakness where I lost control and hinted to Kairi that I'm not the monster she thinks I am. Sue me._

But instead of uttering any of that, Sora uses Flowmotion in order to stand on the room's ceiling—something he honestly thinks that Sakura should be doing, because it would make her life at the moment so much easier—and senses something happening all over the school now.

"Yo, Sakura," Sora says, dropping to the ground, and looking towards the stage that Sakura is just dangling over—in getting ready to try and catch some of Miss Darbus' darkness in the conch shell when she inevitably comes back in here. "I _told_ you that I now think going after the teacher's a bad idea. Why don't we just gather all that we can from this 'destroying Troy and Gabriella's bond' scheme and _go_. I need- I need to get out of here."

 _I need to get away from Kairi, and never see her again, before I do something stupid._

Sakura looks at Sora sympathetically again, and he wonders for just a moment (because he truly doesn't care), if she's ever been in love.

Landing beside Sora and reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder, Sakura asks with her hand half-way there: "You really think that being around her will get you to drop the mission so easily, huh?"

And Sora knows the answer he gives his new "friend" isn't at all one she'd been expecting, when he turns to her, completely monotone and says, "If we don't leave, we're in danger of the Naminé powers that still exist in Kairi reaching out and making me forget the darkness. And we can't have that." _No matter how much I really want it._

And unbeknownst to Sora, a certain blonde Nobody—who was just barely a thing now at all, for the attempt to try to bring her back to life hadn't worked at all—had been fighting Heartless in the rafters above them and had heard the whole thing.

 **Kairi's PoV**

Kairi's a ball of fury when she sees Chad next—sees him for the first time, actually—and rams into him with her shoulder, before some of his team pulls her away.

She wonders, then, if her eyes are blazing as much as Axel's own had been in dealing with Sora at Castle Oblivion.

If so, she doesn't care. She herself almost wants to treat Sora in such a way (and get him back to her), if he… if he had gone so rogue that he'd been the one that caused this.

"Whoa. Whoa. Everyone stop!" Chad is shouting, tipping his face to the ceiling in the locker room and moving his friend's hands from off of Kairi.

"I'm sorry Jason just treated you like that," the basketball star tells her, "but who are you and why are you attacking me?"

"Gabriella- Gabriella's friend," Kairi answers—pulling the scholastic decathlon robe she'd been wearing closer to her person, as if to prove this point.

And as those words register in Chad's head, she sees him pale and look guilty.

But Kairi is tired of boys doing bad things, and thinking that she should forgive them just because they apologize.

…Not that Chad has even _done_ that yet, Kairi acknowledges—as she pulls away from the adolescent and angrily crosses her arms over her chest.

"I know what you guys just did. And what Taylor did was… low. It was. But at least she had the excuse of thinking that Troy really doesn't feel anything for Gabriella, and that he just needed to be egged on to admit that, but you… You know differently, don't you?"

"Umm, guys?" the boy whose name is Zeke pipes in, and Kairi only remembers it because it's so close to her friend Xion's. "Can't you have this conversation anywhere else? Coach will be getting back here soon, and if he sees there's a girl in the locker room with us-"

 _Oh, grow up_ , Kairi wants to snap at Zeke. But she doesn't—knowing that since she's actually older than he is, that if she makes things escalate then she'll be the jerk and not him.

Kairi's just about to poke Chad in the chest once and to insult his character some when a voice that she'd know anywhere ends up interrupting her.

"Umm… Sorry, guys. That's my… girlfriend and she's a bit loony. I'll get her out of here before you can get in trouble with Coach."

It takes every bit of will-power that Kairi has not to attack Sora the moment she sees him.

So now he's using his magic to brainwash these people into thinking he's one of them? Kairi tries to put together, while another part of her is trying to figure out why Sora had called her his girlfriend.

They'd never once been in such a relationship (though maybe they could've been… years past, if things had been different. Maybe), and they certainly aren't now.

In fact, Kairi's sure that she hates Sora's guts now.

So when someone wolf-whistles and tells Sora that she's a catch, she doesn't even feel gratitude for her former boy, when he silences everyone with an icy glare: Perhaps in his own way he is trying to make up for being so late to save her from the men at The World That Never Was by being on top of things now.

…Not that Kairi had at all needed some rescuing from these stupid and childish high school students, who are so closed-minded that they can't even figure out that you can be in more than one clique!

Somewhere right now, Kairi knows that Donald and Goofy are laughing. Because where would _they_ be, if other worlds hadn't been so accepting that they'd allowed the explanation of an anthropomorphic dog and duck without even batting an eyelash?!

Sora and Kairi are walking through a hallway now, and Kairi has to run in order to stay close to him. Sora suddenly seems mad to her, and Kairi can't at all figure out why.

He is the one that betrayed her (and everyone else) and not the other way around, and she means to tell him this, but her attempt is silenced as Sora suddenly stops—her crashing into him as he does so—and snaps, "I don't owe you anything, Kairi. You hear me? Anything. So go… Before my partner fights you for getting in the way of our picking up the spoils at the end of Troy and Gabriella's relationship."

Sora's hands are digging into the railing in front of him so hard, that Kairi's surprised they're not bleeding.

Is he, perhaps, thinking about their once semi-relationship and all that they could have had if he hadn't thrown her away?

If so, Kairi finds that she has less time for his angst than ever before. And this coming from the person that would always pick him back up again, when Riku would defeat him at everything.

"What are you even talking about Sora?" Kairi sighs, sidling up to the man to get a better look into his eyes.

Sora, as fast as a strike of lightning, looks away.

"You act as though you just saved my life, and that I now owe you again. But news flash: you didn't! Not even at all! Those guys, despite how lame they are, are good. And they weren't about to kiss me like Axel di-"

"No, I _did_ save you, Kairi. Sakura needs those dumb boys… to be, well, dumb boys. And you were getting in the way of that. She might've dropped down and killed you if I hadn't stepped in, so you owe me. Leave. Get out of here, now. I don't want you here, Kairi, and I'll fight you if I have to… but I'd rather not."

"Sora-" Kairi exclaims dejectedly at this—stepping away from the old teen with pained eyes. She feels a pang in her heart, as if the bond they've shared for forever is finally disappearing. "Why are you- why are you lying? And lying like it's the best answer and thing you can do imaginable, but… are making things so much worse with it?"

Before Sora can hide it, Kairi sees him flinch. And after he does, he's much more his old self. But Kairi would be lying in saying that she even remotely knows how to feel about it.

"Okay," he tells her, a half-smile lighting up his face, and even now it makes Kairi's heart stop. "So I've never been the best actor. I'm- I'm sorry for the way that I've been treating you, Kairi. I-"

Kairi gets the sense then, that Sora's about to tell her that he's doing what he thinks is right—and she waits in bated breath for his explanation—but before it comes, a group of Shadows appears around Kairi (the look on Sora's face showing that he couldn't have been more shocked about this if he tried), and Kairi smirks.

She's missed being able to smack Heartless in a world.

Destiny's Embrace is in Kairi's hand, the moment that Sora turns around—so that he can bring up the rear—and he and Kairi spring into action.

Water descends onto the Princess of Heart's form, and she jumps up into the air to meet the various droplets more, and she begins dashing into all of her enemies as she is embedded in the sea.

If the multiple strikes from her Keyblade doesn't end up killing the Shadows, Wyverns, and Wizards in front of her, Kairi knows that the Bubble magic she's using will do the trick.

"Huh," Sora remarks, leaping up into the atmosphere and then speeding back down to strike a Behemoth in the head—Kairi's mildly irritated that he has the more difficult Heartless to fight, but she'll worry about that when she's done with her side. "It looks like you've learned some new attacks, Kairi. I'm impressed. Now watch me use Terra's Ars Solum over and over again."

And it warms Kairi's heart to see that Sora isn't using darkness as he fights alongside her, and she wonders if he's purposefully doing that—not to bother her—or if this maybe says that Sora had never really been lost to the darkness at all.

"I had to do something when you left us, and when Riku decided he couldn't handle things anymore," Kairi admits, surprisingly not bitter at all, as Sora stands back-to-back with her and his hair tickles her cheek. "And so I spent a lot of time in Yen Sid's Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Watch this."

Kairi jumps far away from Sora, and she can tell that a worried frown has appeared on his face at this, as she blocks off the busiest hall that will have students coming their way immediately if she doesn't do anything.

"SOUL SAVER!" Kairi bellows, as Sora Strike Raids enemies on all sides of him now over and over again, since Kairi has left him alone with all their enemies.

The Princess' Keyblade turns into the shape of a Scythe—and Kairi wonders if this is because she'd learned this move when she'd discovered that her Nobody, Naminé, couldn't come back, and had so cursed Marluxia for it—and light beam after light beam begins falling off of the edges of it, until they all come together to make a large funnel.

This move isn't unlike Roxas' Limit, Kairi knows, but where he had kept the pillars separate, Kairi puts them all together.

And with a downward swipe of her arm, the bell-shape made up of her essence hammers down and destroys all of the Heartless, as Sora watches on with amazement in his eyes, Kairi can tell.

The moment she's done with her maneuver, Kairi crashes to the ground.

She'd defeated the Heartless just in time, for now Ryan and Sharpay are headed their way—having seen Kairi's actions and perhaps thinking the light show is Troy and Gabriella practicing their routine again—and Sora is by Kairi's side in an instant, cradling her in his eyes.

"Kairi!" he exclaims, running a hand over her forehead to make sure that she doesn't have a fever. "What was- _Please_ tell me you didn't just put your whole being into that attack, and pulled an Axel on me. Or worse, a Xion. I-"

Kairi grins, moving further into Sora's arms—she can't help herself—and she admits, "Just barely."

Sora breathes a sigh of relief at that; apparently he still cares about her well-being after all—and Kairi thinks that both of them are about to slide completely onto the ground, as the traction in Sora's shoe gives out as he holds her.

"That's good to hear. And Kairi, you need to move out of this hallway fast, if you want to protect the World Order."

Out of the corner of her eye, Kairi can see that Ryan and Sharpay have ducked into a nearby room to spy on them, so Kairi can tell that Sora's right.

 _I don't- I don't want to leave now, though, Sora. I want to stay here with you, like this, and have this visual proof that I still mean something to you._

But in the end, Kairi doesn't get her wish.

Sora's companion is by his side now, Kairi knows this for the fact that the girl that has just come to him is also wearing a crown necklace, and Kairi stands up immediately:

She remembers how Sora had been saying earlier that this person would kill her, and Kairi doesn't want to risk fighting her now—not when all of her power is gone for what she'd just done—and so she's running from the scene as fast as her feet will take her.

She can sense Flow Motion in the other woman, after all, and that is not something that Kairi herself has.

The redhead's almost certain that Sora's reaching for her as she goes—this time she's the one leaving him for the sake of a journey—but there's nothing to do about it.

And maybe… maybe Sora had made it so this would always happen, when he left her at Kingdom Hearts in a similar way back then.

…

It's the scene with Sora from earlier that inspires Kairi to go and see Troy Bolton for the first time, and to try and tell him to make things work with Gabriella.

Kairi's not one for romance, really—because as a Princess of Heart, she thinks that her duty is to everyone and not just one special person—but there's something about the way that Troy had made Gabriella light up in a way that Kairi had never seen the other girl do before, that makes her think that the basketball player and the scholar _have_ to end up together.

She discovers a phonebook, finds out where Troy lives, and plans to head over there.

…And Kairi refuses to think about how if Sora finds out about this, he'll probably be jealous.

For absolutely no reason, of course, but honestly… Sora had given up on the two of them appearing to be true to each other, the moment that Kingdom Hearts had touched him at the final battle, and the moment that he'd gone to _her_.

So Kairi shoves her anxiety aside—when she comes upon the house with the massive driveway with a basketball hoop there—and knocks on the door of the handsome brick place.

It's a woman that answers—tall, brunette, and middle-aged—and she seems tired to Kairi, as if she'd just told her son and husband for the umpteenth time to stop practicing and to come in for dinner.

For this reason, Kairi feels slightly bad for what she's about to do (for getting her son a girlfriend will only add to this woman's stress), but she steels her resolve and does it anyway:

Kairi needs Gabriella to keep her light, for she senses that if any of the other Princesses fall, Gabriella would make a good new Pure Light, and giving the girl Troy is one way to make for certain that she'll remain that way.

"Hi," Kairi says, her arms behind her back as she leans forward to see the other woman better. "I'm here to see Troy, if that's at all possible?"

The ginger can tell that she's about to be refused, so she hastily adds in, her hand on the door as she does so, "I'm Gabriella's friend, and I'm here… I'm here because I want both Troy and Gabriella to be happy."

That ends up winning the woman over.

She even winks at Kairi once, before telling her happily, "I'll be right back. And thank you for doing this. I'm sure that things can work out for the best, if the two of them just _try_. So thank you for helping with that."

Kairi nods stiffly, not so much because she thinks that Troy's mom is wrong, but because there had been another time when she'd been certain that everything would work out for another couple, but she'd been wrong. Oh so very wrong.

But this world is a lot more… relaxed than Pocahontas and John Smith's one, so Kairi decides to hope for the best here.

Without much more preamble, Troy finally gets downstairs and is at the door meeting Kairi.

She can tell that he doesn't recognize her as one of Gabriella's acquaintances at all, but it's fine.

Kairi knows that as soon as she mentions how she herself is going to be in the Scholastic Decathlon, Troy will believe her.

And so he does.

"Why are you here, then?" Troy asks, with his arms crossed over his chest, as the two of them head out into his backyard, that hosts a treehouse that's almost as well-done as the Play Island's own. "Shouldn't you be practicing for that, since it's in two days? Like I should be for the gam-"

"I'm here because I think it was a mistake that you and Gabriella broke up. And don't bother acting like you weren't together, I… I've seen a thing or two about relationships. And more than that, I know how happy she was whenever you two would practice together."

Troy seems about to protest this—but then he looks at Kairi and maybe puts two and two together to see that she's older than she looks—and running a hand through his hair he relinquishes, "Yeah, that's all well and good, but _she_ broke up with _me_. Not the other way around. And I have no idea why."

Kairi runs a hand over her moonstone necklace, that was supposed to protect her, and in doing so finds that she wants to guard _Troy_.

And so she almost tells him about the ploy that had made Gabriella hear him say that she was "nothing" to him, but then Kairi decides it isn't her place.

For better or for worse, Troy is _so_ much like Sora—though he wears more blue than Sora ever has, and Kairi thinks this maybe says that Troy, at least, will always stay good, unlike Sora who had worn colors associated with evil all the time—and if he wants to work things out with Gabriella, she knows it has to be his decision that he deals with when he figures everything out naturally.

"Don't ask me how I know this," Kairi says, as she goes and sits on the Bolton's trampoline. "But I know that you talked about how Gabriella and singing 'meant nothing to you' to your team recently. And when you met Gabriella after that, you may have still had that lie on your lips when you told her you wanted to work on your audition piece. But Gabriella… she probably got your lie and truth confused. Go talk to her, and you'll be able to work things out. Believe me."

Kairi pats a reassured Troy on the shoulder once, and then she takes her leave.

But before she's completely away from the house, she sees what's left of her Nobody—Naminé—and the blonde girl tells her what she'd overheard: that according to Sora, she has darkness in her heart (and always has), and that he's doing what he is because he thinks it'll benefit the world.

And Kairi knowing Sora assumes that this means that he's trying to protect his friends somehow, but she can't say for sure.

…

Kairi doesn't end up seeing Sora again for a while after that.

She doesn't go to school the day after she'd spoken with Troy, because she had caught a cold in that cool night air—and hadn't been able to even stand up the next day, she was so weak—but she does go the day after, when Ryan, Sharpay, and Miss Darbus have conspired to get Troy and Gabriella unable to audition the second time, it looks like.

Since she'd missed so much the previous day, Kairi isn't able to help much in the Basketball Team and Decathlon team's plan to make sure that Troy and Gabriella can accomplish both of their dreams (she just answers problems as fast as she can at the math challenge, to hurry it along, so that Gabriella has a better chance of making it to the callback; she maybe even discreetly uses a Haste spell now and then to aid to this), but she's _so_ relieved about Chad and Taylor's change of hearts that she could cry.

Kairi then seems to be seeing Troy and Gabriella sing faster than the blink of an eye, it feels like—and when the whole school is there and cheering for them, Kairi knows that they'll win it and this place of academic study will be so much better for it.

Even Miss Darbus seems to have gotten over her bias as she throws her clipboard away and claps to the two's marvelous routine.

But then most important thing of all: Kairi feels someone tapping her on her shoulder and she turns around to see that it's Riku: he tells her that he's done with burying his head in the sand and that he's going to help to get Sora back, no matter what it takes.

Kairi knows, without even really being sure how she does, that Sora is responsible for all these things happening.

…He'd probably gathered darkness from Darbus, Sharpay, and Ryan when they'd been being crazy, yes—but he'd also made sure to make sure everything had a happy ending; Kairi's sure of it.

Hope isn't lost for him after all, then.

And squeezing Riku's hand in her own, and holding her lucky charm in the other one, Kairi promises herself that she'll always look for Sora if that's what's needed to get him by her side again.

She looks up to the ceiling—the sky—and utters one name, _his_ name, as tears slide down her face and the faith that she has within her to save all of their bonds comes to her.

 _Wherever you go, Sora, I'm always with you. Always._

 **Sora's PoV**

And unbeknownst to her, a certain Keyblade Master—who had been at the end of his ropes recently—can sense Kairi's resolve through their connected hearts (as he rests in a new world), and he smiles for it in a much relieved way.

Sora may not be able to figure out a solution to all of this, but he knows for sure now that Kairi will be able to.

It was ideas like that that had made Sora tell Yen Sid that Kairi could wield a Keyblade in the first place, and he would gladly do it again—if it meant they could always have the fun battles against Heartless together that they'd had just a few days back… And just be together, of course.

Always.

 **Author's Note: It should be noted that I rarely, if ever, write in present tense. And somehow all of this text ended up being exactly that. I hope it's okay...**


End file.
